Rockstar Games recently announced the newest GTA IV episode called “The Ballad of Gay Tony.” It lets people play as Luis Lopez, an assistant to Tony Price, aka “Gay Tony,” one of Liberty City’s most popular night club owners. There isn’t much info about new gameplay mechanics or missions at the moment. Still, I bet it’ll involve criminal activity as seen in previous GTA‘s. The downloadable content will drop this fall and cost 1600 MS points ($20 bucks in normal words) just like the previous GTA episode.

This is the second entry in Rockstar’s GTA IV series exclusive to the Xbox 360. The first episode, The Lost and Damned, dropped in February and was well received for the most part. It chronicled the story of Johnny Klebitz, member of “The Lost” Biker Gang. It reportedly featured about 12-20 hours of new single player missions that revolved around the gang. It also introduced new weapons, abilities and online multiplayer modes. I haven’t checked it out but it’s been on my to do list for awhile now.

Speaking of The Lost And Damned, Rockstar will drop both episodes on one disc. This release will be called Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City and it’ll go for $39.99. This may be a better look for some consumers for two reasons. It’s actually on a physical medium as well as playable as a standalone copy. The catch for the downloadable versions of The Lost And Damned and Gay Tony is they require an original copy of GTA IV to work. So basically you could opt to play the disc version of these episodes without owning GTA IV. GTA: Episodes From Liberty City should drop sometime this fall. At this point I’ll just wait for the DVD rather than drop two Jacksons on games that’ll eat up my hard drive.

Rockstar is known to push the envelope and I’m sure people will get offended by the subject matter. Still, something tells me the single player to Gay Tony will be pretty funny considering the GTA series excels at gay jokes and potty humor. It’s one of the few games that makes me laugh so I’m looking forward to it. Plus the retail version will get me up to speed on The Lost And Damned and all the extras.

I predict they’ll at least show a trailer at E3 next week so I’ll try to get more info on the game at the event.

I agree with that mostly because SA took a HUGE step up with interactivity outside of missions. You could lift weights, eat some food, go to school (bike, driving, boat, etc.). All 3 citities were big as hell and they were unique. GTA IV added some more features (carwash, unique pedestrian qualities, etc.), but nothing that was totally mindblowing.

GTA 4 beats than San Andreas just with the improved controls (outside of driving). I HATE using auto lock to shoot people. It arbitrarily picks your targets and it messed up a lot in the older games. GTA IV finally made manual aim an option and I never looked back.

Sure all the weight lifting, base jumping, and all that other stuff wasn’t in 4. But I didn’t miss them at the end of the day. They should’ve done something like have ridiculous real estate options and more weapons to cop since I had a lot of dough after awhile in 4.

05.28.09 at 12:12 am

Douglas Howser

Why Gay Tony?… Why not Pretty Tony?

Ghostface could’ve done a concept album… sort of like Jay-Z did American Gangster. Folks ain’t thinking about the marketing possibilities. Let’s think about the “big” picture Rockstar Games…. money.

05.28.09 at 12:15 am

Teef

@ Sam C – so, in addition to the downloadable versions, the disc they’re dropping w/ both episodes is also XBox 360 only?

05.28.09 at 12:20 am

Sam C

@ Teef

Yup. Microsoft paid Rockstar $50 Mill to make these episodes exclusive to the 360 a few years back. Even though I only have a 360 now I still think it’s dumb. The more people that can enjoy it the better.

05.28.09 at 1:14 am

Teef

^ true. but it’s a shrewd business move on Microsoft’s part. GTAIV sold over 3.6 mil on release day, w/ a total of 13 mil sold as of 3/11. I’m no biz whiz, but they’d only have to sell 1.3 mil copies of the upcoming 2-episode disc to break even, which is nothing to them. They’ll easily make it back plus push a few more consoles cuz of the exclusivity. Still…wah.

05.28.09 at 1:32 am

TURK a.k.a. The Gravie Speaks the Truth

I dont play this game nor any of the previous GTA’S but ………………………………
how come there wasnt a No Homo or *pause* after the title?

05.28.09 at 2:08 am

Sam C

@Teef
True. Still I bet they prolly made a considerable amount of it back on the Lost & Damned DLC alone. I think it set a crazy record for DLC downloads on xbox live.

@TURK

I didn’t even catch that. I bet Gotty did it on purpose haha.

05.28.09 at 6:03 am

AmpGeez a.k.a. Why So Serious?

Rockstar was also supposed to have a deal with Sony for an exclusive IP but so far I haven’t heard any word of what that’s gonna be.

Yet another win for Microsoft and another L for Sony.

I kick myself all the time for not opting for the 360.

05.28.09 at 6:23 am

DjayCas

the rumor is that microsofts ‘exclusive’ deal is only for 6 months. meaning when the cds drop itll be for both systems. august 20th.

hopefully this is true.

05.29.09 at 8:06 am

Dj_horne

whats with all the ps3 bashing, gta4 is good but nothing on SA or Vice City. Good thinking on Microsoft’s part, but I wouldn’t of got the extras anyways. PS3 got Blu-ray wah… Dual shock wah… and no batteries wah..
360 got its goods and bads so has PS3 its just what u prefer.

06.06.10 at 8:20 pm

Free Xbox Points

Greetings from West Virginia! Just saw your blog. Actually took in your article, I’ll email it along! O:-) Have a great day!

06.30.11 at 12:28 pm

Joaquin Klopp

Additionally the story will not be some wish or unrealistic statement, somewhat a fact.